Beasley Media Reports Ad Revenue Increase, Despite 4Q Drop

Beasley Broadcast Group today announced operating results for the three- and twelve-month periods ended December 31, 2019.

The results reflect actual results including the operations of WXTU 92.5 FM in Philadelphia since its acquisition in September 2018 and WDMK 105.9 FM in Detroit since its acquisition in August 2019.

Commenting on the financial results, Caroline Beasley, Chief Executive Officer, said, “Fiscal year 2019 was an active and productive period for Beasley as we continued to make significant progress rolling out our digital expansion and transformation initiatives across the Company, while advancing our revenue diversification strategies and actively managing our local radio platform to drive long-term SOI growth and margin expansion. Beasley’s fourth quarter net revenue decline of $3.5 million primarily reflects a $2.8 million reduction in political advertising revenue compared to the prior year period.  While we were not able to fully offset the cyclical impact of political revenue, the fourth quarter radio advertising environment remained healthy with six of our markets generating year-over-year revenue increases.

Caroline Beasley

“By opportunistically divesting several non-core land and tower assets in 2019, Beasley generated a 31% increase in full year free cash flow over the prior year period, which enabled us to complete several strategic growth and diversification investments in our broadcast, digital, technology and esports platforms throughout the year.  Our fourth quarter results highlight the value we have begun extracting from our digital transformation strategy investments. In the fourth quarter, Beasley generated digital revenue growth of approximately 44% on a year-over-year basis, with digital now accounting for 9.2% of total revenue, compared to 6.1% of total revenue in the prior year period.

“In 2019, we also continued our disciplined approach to growing our platform, content portfolio and distribution by identifying and completing transactions where we can drive revenue and cost synergies, and further strengthen SOI margins, with a limited impact on our leverage as we applied capital from the sale of non-core assets and cash from operations to make these investments. In August, we completed the accretive and deleveraging acquisition of WDMK-FM, which is complementary to our three existing radio stations and digital operations in Detroit and moves us closer to our goal of achieving 30% revenue share in the market. The integration of WDMK-FM is proceeding according to plan, and we expect to realize the full financial and strategic benefits of this transaction in 2020.

“We believe our radio platform and competitive positions in our markets are as strong as ever and remain confident that our revenue diversification initiatives, including our digital media initiatives, are creating new opportunities for further growth and enhanced shareholder returns.”